75% of all animal species in the world are insects. The largest group within insects are beetles (400,000 species). Beetles can be very beautiful and colorful, but many beetle species are also serious agricultural pests that can destroy food plants like potatoes (the Colorado potato beetle) and threaten large areas [...]
The method involves introducing Gonatocerus ashmeadi, a microscopic parasitic wasp, into an ecosystem under siege from the glassy-winged sharpshooter. The tiny stingless wasp attacks glassy-winged sharpshooter eggs by drilling a tiny hole in the egg through which the parasite lays its own egg. The wasp larva that hatches from the egg then eats the [...]
Sylvia Cremer is from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and the University of Regensburg in Germany. Working with colleagues from these institutes and the University of Keele in the UK, she looked at colonies of ants in 14 locations around Europe. Using a combination of genetic, chemical and behavioural analyses, the researchers investigated the [...]
Growers must choose among an increasing number of cultivars and an increasingly diverse spectrum of pest management options linked to the cultivars. In recent years, the number of different transgenic cotton production options that a grower may purchase has outpaced the capacity of the official cultivar trials (OCTs) to adequately evaluate their economic value.
First, large [...]
A team of K-State researchers found that by using technology to silence a gene in the salivary glands of pea aphids, the insect%26rsquo;s lifespan was cut by more than 50 percent.
%26ldquo;What we found is that when we silenced the most abundant transcript (gene), the aphids died in a few days,%26rdquo; said K-State professor of entomology [...]
The traditional method has been to release multiple agents into the environment and overwhelm the pest, said Davis. But with multiple introductions comes an increased likelihood that one of the agents will become invasive as well. So, what we’re trying to do is to figure out which one is the most likely to actually have [...]
Bt-resistant populations of bollworm, Helicoverpa zea, were found in more than a dozen crop fields in Mississippi and Arkansas between 2003 and 2006.
What we’re seeing is evolution in action, said lead researcher Bruce Tabashnik. This is the first documented case of field-evolved resistance to a Bt crop.
Bt crops are so named because they have been [...]
That leaves almost 80 percent who are suffering more than they need to, said the study’s lead author, Jill Halterman, M.D., M.P.H., Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong. They may be experiencing unnecessary symptoms, missed school days, and restrictions on activity. That’s a problem.
Halterman said the survey results are striking because, [...]
According to the findings of a new study, published in the January issue of Academic Emergency Medicine, CO also causes direct damage to the heart muscle, separate from the effects of oxygen deprivation, which reduces the heart’s pumping capacity and permanently impairs cardiac function.
These findings suggest that heart damage caused by carbon monoxide may have [...]
The report %26rdquo;Economic Impacts of Invasive Alien Species: A Global Problem with Local Consequences is authored by the Global Invasives Species Programme.
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